let s take an example of why it is that house democrats are going to compete in lots of places that they have not competed before, in mull bricks fifth congressional seat in alabama, he s retiring from the u.s. house, president trump carried that last year by a margin of 65 to 31. that s an amazing landslide. 65 to 31. mr. moore and senator elect jones virtually tied in that congressional district. that s where huntsville is, that s where scientists are who work on rocket programs and you know what, when the president s administration says we re not going to allow the use of terms like evidence space and science-based, these scientists don t like that. we re going to see competitive, congressional district races where nobody thought possible just a few short months ago. and just to add a very quick exclamation point rather in this new nbc news wall street journal poll, 50% of registered voters
and encountered technical problems that offered rocket programs and development encounter, its costs started to increase and the gap started to grow. so that job crisis was always looming no matter what. people either through self-delusion or nasa being very fuzz bewhat numbers were actually going to be lost, it was never clear about what would happen. now that the shuttle program is ending and there is no constellation program that is going to follow on and it wasn t going to follow on even before obama cut it, it looked like the job numbers were just in kennedy space center and that doesn t include other centers about 9,000 which here on the space coast of florida is a big loss because the local unemployment rate is about already 13%. yeah. so that number will be magnified in other centers as well. without constellation, there s a concern that that kind of loss
have a lot of people nervous and particularly lawmakers on capitol hill who are from states like florida where there are so many thousands of jobs at stake when you start shifting priority and also some of the famous astronauts like neil armstrong, a tight fraternity of former astronauts, they ve written a letter, several of them to the president saying in part, quote, without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provide, the usa is on a long, downward slide to mediocritiy and it wishes to remain a leader in space. what they re referring to is the president s initial program was to cut some funding and basically cut off funding for some existing rocket programs. the president will revamp that somewhat tomorrow. we are told if you take a close look at the new plan, the president will lay out $6 billion in new money for nasa over the next five years. going to jump-start new industry and says he ll bring in some new jobs and save about 2500 jobs
questioning his plans for nasa. if you look at it on its surface, getting billions of dollars for that is is. reporter: clearly this white house is trying to find a compromise. the president s ormg budget plan would have cut off funding for some of the existing rocket programs politically unpopular with lawmakers from states like florida, fearing layoffs and what not from the costs. the letter from neil armstrong and rock stars of the small ifrm a ternlt, without the skill and material, they are likely to be a long downhill slide to immediate mediocrity. the white house is saying there have been tore tough budget choices made and seen nasa where they want to shift priorities. i think it s clear now given the criticism from the former
the president s new plan for nasa creating something of a space spat this morning. the administration thinks it s time to consider a new direction for america s space agency. ed henry is live at the white house this morning. ed, the president heads to florida tomorrow to present this plan. what do we know about it so far? reporter: jim, you re right. it s almost two plans. the president had an original plan that s taken some flak. tomorrow in florida he s expected to come up with a compromise plan mostly stemming from the fact originally he wanted to cut off funding from some of the existing rocket programs. that s upset lawmakers on capitol hill, especially from states like florida, obviously politically important, but states very hard hit by potential layoffs at kennedy space center and it s also really riled some of those rock stars among that small fraternity of former astronauts like neil armstrong. they wrote a letter to the president, saying, quote, without the skill and exper